Movie Review: 'The One and Only Ivan' is the Good Kind of Cheesy

The One and Only Ivan is a big slice of family movie cheese from the ultimate cheese factory, Disney. The latest original to debut on Disney Plus, The One and Only Ivan tells the relatively true story of a gorilla in residence for more than 20 years as an off-ramp attraction at a Mall based Circus. The One and Only Ivan is the second feature film from director Thea Sharrock who made her name in theater and on the BBC with Call the Midwife before landing the high cheese romantic drama Me Before You in 2016.

The One and Only Ivan features the voice of Sam Rockwell in the lead role of Ivan, a fearsome, silver back Gorilla who is actually a real pussycat behind the scenes. On stage he roars to the terror and delight of kids, and parents who had nothing better to do that day. Behind the scenes, he likes playing with his pal, a mutt named Bob (Danny Devito) and watching over a gaggle of fellow performers that include an elderly elephant named Stella (voice of Angelina Jolie), a fire truck riding rabbit named Murphy (Ron Funches), a baseball playing chicken named Henrietta (Chaka Khan), and a nervous seal, voiced by the film’s writer, Mike White.

Unfortunately, Ivan’s drawing power isn’t what it used to be. Crowds aren’t showing up and the stress on Ivan’s human pal, Mack (Bryan Cranston), the owner of the Big Top Mall, is beginning to show. That’s when the plot truly kicks in. In order to restore the crowds and stoke new interest in the Big Top Mall, Mack drops his last few bucks to buy a brand new baby elephant named Ruby (Brooklynn Prince).

At first, Ivan is a little hurt by the new acquisition, and new apple of Mack’s eye. Ruby immediately takes his headlining spot at the end of the show and crowds begin to return to the Big Top. That however, is when the plot takes another turn and a tragedy causes Ivan to turn from Ruby’s antagonist to her most staunch protector. Ivan vows to help get Ruby out of captivity and into the wild where she belongs.

Everything in The One and Only Ivan is quite sweet and charming. The special effects that give life to the circus animals are terrific with a strong believability factor. I bought into the inner lives of these animals and the charm of their well worn dynamic. Some of that charm is likely due to the work of Mike White, a former indie darling known for his quirky and well detailed characters. The characters of The One and Only Ivan are sweet without being cloying and that’s a strong screenwriting talent on display.

It’s not all great, of course, this is a high cheese factor family movie after all. The worst thing about The One and Only Ivan are the bizarre combination of comedian Ron Funches and Chaka Khan as a goofy rabbit and a sassy chicken respectively. It appears that both performers were directed to go over the top on the modest characteristics of their characters and they laid everything on super thick. Thankfully, their roles are relatively small but their screen time is awkward at least and offensive if you really want to dig in on the bad.

The human actors deliver rather typical performances for a Disney live action family movie. Bryan Cranston engages in some broad physicality and appears to relish the chance to lay on a silly, faux intellectual, diction when he’s in Master of Ceremonies mode. Cranston is clearly enjoying himself but his looseness is at times at odds with a role that casts him as the closest thing to an antagonist in the movie.

Oddly, there is no romantic plot in the movie. That’s the one cliche that The One and Only Ivan meticulously avoids. Instead, we get an intuitive beyond her years child who becomes Ivan’s advocate when he begins to excel at drawing with crayons and experimenting with finger painting. Veteran Disney child actress, Ariana "Stuck in the Middle" Greenblatt portrays Julia in a solid kid performance that proves integral to the plot.

Oh, did I mention that this is a true story about an artistic gorilla? Indeed, the real Ivan showed a rather modest talent for finger painting that brought him fame and calls for him to be released back into the wild, or at least to an approximation of the wild with fresh air and room to roam, rather than a cage in the back room of a mall. The movie takes Ivan’s artistic talent to a rather extreme place but it’s still fun and the uplift works for such an already high cheese family flick.

The One and Only Ivan starts Friday, August 21st on Disney Plus and if you enjoy Disney’s brand of inoffensive, modestly ambitious, family comedy, you will likely enjoy The One and Only Ivan. It’s just charming enough, just funny enough and just good enough for me to recommend that you check it out if you are already a Disney Plus subscriber.